There are myriad reasons why a conveyancing firm might be slow to respond to your queries as a homebuyer in the UK.
Often those reasons will be completely understandable and delays to your process might be wholly unavoidable. However, all that could well be of little comfort if you are left feeling frustrated by a lack of responsiveness on the part of your conveyancer.
Here we’ll take a closer look at some of the key issues to consider in these contexts.
Why might my conveyancer be slow to respond?
Solicitors overseeing your conveyancing process take responsibility for a variety of different legally necessary and important undertakings, such as checking a swathe of details associated with specific properties, individuals and their financial arrangements.
The total time that a conveyancing effort should usually take from beginning to end is between 12 and 16 weeks but the complex and interconnected nature of the process means delays can often happen.
Conveyancers are required, for instance, to obtain various forms of documentation, including from local authorities and other third-party organisations, which can take time to gather and delays are sometimes unavoidable.
A conveyancing process might also be delayed by problems anywhere within your property chain, which can then take time to resolve properly. Issues that cause delays might also be brought to light by property surveys or within the details of mortgage applications.
It is also the case that buyers or sellers anywhere within a given property chain might be slow to respond to requests for information or documentation that’s put to them by conveyancers.
How can you speed up the conveyancing process?
The conveyancing process inevitably takes time (weeks rather than days) and potentially much longer than you might wish as a homebuyer. Given which, it can be important and wise generally to maintain realistic expectations about the timeframes involved.
However, if you feel genuinely unhappy with the time being taken and eager to speed matters along, there are some steps you can consider taking, such as:
- Reach out directly to your solicitor or service provider and ask for updates on your case
- Reiterate your concerns with the rate of progress being made and escalate matters to senior people at your conveyancing firm
- Switch to a new conveyancer, if you remain broadly dissatisfied with the service you’re receiving from the people you’ve initially hired
Reasonable expectations
While it is a very common and iterative process, conveyancing is still by its nature a somewhat complicated and time-consuming undertaking.
After all, it involves the coordination of multiple disparate parties, information gathering from an array of different sources and every step of the process needs to be carried out to exacting standards for solid legal reasons.
However, that does not mean that clients are entirely powerless within the conveyancing picture or that they need to simply accept that the process takes as long as it takes.
Encouraging urgency
It is possible, in fact, for clients to influence how their cases develop, firstly by being proactive in requesting updates and by encouraging swift action on the part of their conveyancers.
It is imperative for clients to be reasonable and cordial with anyone they’re communicating with about their conveyancing issues, and sensible to ensure that they are not themselves responsible for delays to the process. But it is reasonable too for homebuyers to expect a good level of communication and cooperation on the part of anyone they’ve hired to provide conveyancing services.
Ultimately, if you feel as a client that the services you are receiving from your conveyancers are inadequate or moving much too slowly for your liking then you are well within your rights to consider switching to a different firm.
How we help speed things along
Home Legal Direct is part of a broader advancement and acceleration effort around conveyancing services enabled and empowered by developments in online information sharing.
Our network gives homebuyers instant access to quotes from dozens of accredited and highly reputable conveyancing service providers based in all parts of England and Wales.
Home Legal Direct’s resident experts can also provide clear answers to any questions you might have as a conveyancer’s client and push for solutions on your behalf if issues arise to delay your transaction.